The Pilgrimage

On April the 1st the Municipality of Amsterdam shutted down the winter shelters, leaving hundreds of undocumented migrants completely homeless. NGOs, political parties, Protestant churches and civil volunteers and the migrants them selves gathered to organize a way through this situation. For over 30 days, around 60 undocumented migrants and volunteers had to fin night accommodation on the go. This meant that volunteers and migrants would work every days non stop to find a place where to spend the night. Once a shelter was found the dynamics were the following: Get donations such as sleeping bags, coats, breakfast and dinner. Make sure everybody was at Werelhuis (meeting point) and get “the pilgrimage” started. Everybody walking around 20, 40 or 90 minutes with all their belongings towards the new place. The shelters where mainly Protestant Churches. There were no beds or couches, only the floor and their sleeping bags, and everybody sleeping on the same space. Every shelter foun

On April the 1st the Municipality of Amsterdam shutted down the winter shelters, leaving hundreds of undocumented migrants completely homeless. NGOs, political parties, Protestant churches and civil volunteers and the migrants them selves gathered to organize a way through this situation.

For over 30 days, around 60 undocumented migrants and volunteers converged at the Werelhuis, a non profit organization initiated by the Diaconie of Amsterdam and Luthers Amsterdam. Migrants had lunch and a place where to stay only during noon because staying the night at Werelhuis was legally not allowed. Night accommodation had to be found on the go, this meant that volunteers and migrants would work every days non stop to find a place where to spend the night.

Once a shelter was found the dynamics were the following: Get donations such as sleeping bags, coats, breakfast and dinner. Make sure everybody was at Werelhuis and start get “the pilgrimage” started. Some volunteers leading the group and walking 20, 40 or 90 minutes with all their belongings.

The shelters where mainly Protestant Churches among with a few Cultural Centres. There were no beds or couches, only the floor and their sleeping bags and everybody sleeping at the same space. Every shelter found was able only for one, two or maximum tree nights. Sometimes, even though they were allowed to stay two or tree days, they had to leave the place at morning and go back walking to Werelhuis until the afternoon, when they had to start the same process over and over again.

The migrants were from different countries such as Gambia, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, but mainly from Eritrea. Ages were different too, most of them were about 17 and 25 but there were older people from 50 and even 60 years old. Some of them were physical injured, such as twisted ankles or dislocated shoulders; some were suffering from heal problems such as schizophrenia, panic attacks, allergies and colds.